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Going Back to Work After a Year at Home

Question: "I took the past year off to spend time with my baby. Now I'm ready to go back to work, but I don't know where to start. Plus, I'm worried that my résumé screams, 'She's been sitting on her butt for a year.' Help!"

Sitting on your butt when you have a baby around? Hardly! Still, I wouldn’t recommend filling in your résumé gap with “human milk-making machine” or “4 a.m. soother extraordinaire.” So how do you trade in your stay-at-home sweats for in-the-office suits?

First, figure out what kind of job you want. An interviewer will sense it if your heart’s not in it, so take the time to think about whether you’d like to return to your former field or try something new (hey, you’re doing so well at motherhood, and you were once a novice at that!). Then follow these steps to get that dream offer.

Consider your old company. If you liked your previous job, get in touch with your former boss. Going back to work where you’ve already been employed may help smooth the transition from home to office. Plus, it’s a lot easier for a company to hire someone they know, especially if you did great work before-baby, than start from scratch with a brand-new employee.

Set up childcare. If you’re serious about going back to work, set aside regular time to focus on your job search — and that doesn’t mean plopping your pipsqueak in front of the TV every day. Ask a family member or find a babysitter to watch your wee one a few times a week while you scour online job boards, make phone calls to prospective employers, and send in applications. At the very least, work on job apps while your sweetie’s snoozing and have a sitter at the ready in case you get called in for an interview on short notice. Be sure to consider all of your childcare options before going back to work.

Update your résumé. The best way to handle your year at home on your résumé is to… (drumroll, please) not mention it. So many people are out of work these days that having a gap in employment is no longer a huge red flag. But if you’re concerned that gap is keeping you from getting hired, consider volunteering or consulting in your field while looking for work. Then, use those experiences to fill in the blanks on your résumé.

Make connections. The chance of your résumé (or anyone’s, really) getting randomly plucked out of the pile is pretty slim. But a friend, or a friend of a friend, or even the mom you met in infant massage class can launch you onward and upward simply by putting in a good word. That’s why you shouldn’t be shy about asking someone to recommend you. Networking will also help you hear about job opportunities before they get publicly posted. So invite your former coworkers to lunch, join professional organizations, and create a profile on linkedin.com, a business networking site. And if you know someone (or know someone who knows someone) at a company you’d like to work for, ask if you can pick her brain over coffee.

Nail the interview. So you finally score an interview for your dream job, and the recruiter’s first question puts you on the spot about the gap in your résumé. Be prepared with a concise, honest, and confident answer, something like: “I decided to stay home with my baby for her first year, and I’m glad I did it, but now I’m eager to get back to work.” Then, steer the conversation back to your qualifications and experience.

Remember, any employer who holds the (baby) gap against you is probably not a mom-friendly manager anyway. How will she handle it when you must leave work early because your small-fry spikes a fever at his group daycare? So move on from the less-supportive companies and believe that the right job will come along (because it will).